Figure 4: MTSS1 promotes in vivo metastasis.

(a) Immunoblotting for MTSS1 in human 1205Lu melanoma cells stably expressing ectopic MTSS1 cDNA or control empty-vector. (b) Left, representative image of luciferase-based in vivo detection of metastasis from subcutaneous tumours of 1205Lu melanoma cells ectopically expressing MTSS1. The bioluminescence signal is shown here at week 9, the intensity of the signal, measured as photon flux, is shown as a color scale. Middle, ex vivo imaging of individual organs representing known frequent metastatic sites of melanoma. Right, representative H&E lung histology obtained by serial sectioning through the whole organ. Scale bar, 125 μm. Bottom, tumour penetrance and in vivo metastasis of empty-vector- and ectopic MTSS1-expressing human 1205Lu melanoma cells. Extreme right, mean metastatic tumour load in animals with empty-vector- versus ectopic MTSS1-expressing cells (measured as photon flux (photons s⁻¹ cm⁻² steradian⁻¹) within the ROI). Error bars represent mean±s.e.m.; *P≤0.05 (two-tailed Student’s t-test).